Up until recently, unless I had a fish in hand, I never considered it caught. But this weekend I had a number of them get to my feet and then slip the hook. Which got me thinking, does it really matter if I get my hand wet/covered in slime for the fish to count? I fought it, I played it in, and at the last second it slipped away. Which really doesn't matter when I'm just going to release it anyway.

Funny you should bring this up...being that we are in the brotherhood of truth stretchers (get mad if ya want, it's the truth), I pondered this myself this weekend.

I hooked only 4 fish this past weekend. The one I caught (landed) to hand was a 22" pig of a 'bow. The other three were hooked and played but one broke off (one was larger than the one I landed and I fought it for 10 minutes trying to get it out of some deep, fast water). I only consider the one one landed to hand as caught.

I look at it like this:

If a cop was chasing someone down and he collared the perp and handcuffed him, he's caught. But if he collared the perp and the perp got loose and took off (pepper spray or stun guns notwithstanding), the cop can't go back and tell his boss that he "caught" the perp because he's not there to book.

If a fish is hooked and you land him, everything went right on your end to make it happen: you played it fish right, the knots held, the rod/reel did it's job and you finished the job. If the fish broke off/tossed the hook/whatever, the fish won the encounter.

I guess it depends on how you define caught. Some would say fish to hand, some would say if a fish is fooled into taking your fraud offering, he's caught. For me it's all about the tug on the end of the line and my all time favorite sight is seeing a fish rise to my dry fly.
I can't wait to read everyone's thoughts on this subject. Carry on.

If I get my leader near the rod tip, it's a caught fish...after that I'm just going to release it anyway. Feed em a little slack and (hopefully) off they go. No stinky hands, no hurting the fish by handling them or taking them out of the water. Sometimes I want a picture, so out comes the net...

I was thinking about this question while out on the water yesterday. I realized (more than decided) that for me it kinda depends upon the fish. If the fish is of a size and species that I typically catch frequently, I don't care so much about bringing it to hand. I might be a little lazy in playing it, and if it gets off at my feet so much the better.

For trophy sized fish, which in my book starts around 18-20" for trout, I would need to net the fish. I suppose its because a fish of that size offers a real challenge, and if I couldn't bring him in, I lost. I would say that the same goes for new species. No way, I'm going to say I caught a grayling, for example, if I didn't take it off the hook.

I was thinking about this question while out on the water yesterday. I realized (more than decided) that for me it kinda depends upon the fish. If the fish is of a size and species that I typically catch frequently, I don't care so much about bringing it to hand. I might be a little lazy in playing it, and if it gets off at my feet so much the better.

For trophy sized fish, which in my book starts around 18-20" for trout, I would need to net the fish. I suppose its because a fish of that size offers a real challenge, and if I couldn't bring him in, I lost. I would say that the same goes for new species. No way, I'm going to say I caught a grayling, for example, if I didn't take it off the hook.

Agree, that's pretty much how I feel about it.
Often times I would rather if it did get off at my feet (The little guys anyhow), just so I can get right back at it.

It is defiantly something I pondered last fall when I brought in a pig of a rainbow. My partner had it in the net not only once, but twice before he spit the hook and made for the depths. Of course my buddy was saying "consider it caught" but I on the other hand disagree.
Just being the thing was big (being modest) somewhere over 26+ inches and FAT (Hence flopping out of the boat net twice) , but the truth is we will never know just how big!
That's about as close to being caught as I could get without actually catching, but how I would have loved to feel the girth of that thing in my hands! (sigh)